'The Magician's Nephew' by C.S. Lewis

Or 'The One with the Apple'

Welcome to my read-along of the Narnia series. Although I try to keep them to a minimum, I won't promise to consistently dodge plot spoilers, especially when discussing my impressions of the books this time round. But I consider old classics are fair game and hope you'll join me anyway. 

Here's the book about the founding of a magical land. It's focused on the people present to witness the creation of Narnia, when the majestic Lion Aslan breathes life into its dense nothingness. The start of the story claims it will explain how the portal between our world and Narnia came to be, and indeed it delivers.

But we begin with the first of the series' boy/girl duos grounded firmly on earth. Digory Kirke and his ailing mother go to live with Aunt Letty and Uncle Andrew in London. Everyone expects Mrs Kirke will die before long, which grieves Digory to his core. He makes friends with Polly Plummer, the girl next door, and together they decide to explore their row of attached houses via the roof cavity. They accidentally burst into the studio of eccentric Uncle Andrew, an aspiring magician who's too chicken to explore the far-off place he's sourced (which turns out to be a sort of woodsy outdoor foyer between worlds). But he has no qualms about tricking the two kids into casing out the mysterious realm on his behalf. It's far more than Polly and Digory bargain for, and Uncle Andrew discovers that after all his sneakiness, he can't expect to dodge payback forever. 

What I appreciated even more than before.

1) Okay, we aren't ever told, but I'm estimating the time period in London to be around the late 1800s. Digory was the young boy who grows up to become Professor Kirke in the WW2 era. If he's around 11, that might put him in his fifties or early sixties for the next book. Parts of the London Underground were still being built, and rather than driving a car, Frank the cabbie had a horse-drawn hansom cab, which were running until 1908. And the clothing mentioned and shown in illustrations seems to be a remnant of the era, including Digory's Norfolk jacket. This sort of sleuthing is fun.

2) I love Uncle Andrew! Not the guy himself, but the way he was written. He has such Albert Einstein/Jerry Lewis professor vibes, even though he's essentially clueless, or just knowledgeable enough to make him dangerous. And he quickly shows himself to be an unscrupulous con man with an entrepreneurial heart of the tackiest kind. 

3) Digory did it!!! My word, we all know Harry Potter is called 'The Boy who Lived', and in this series, Digory is 'The Boy who Did It.' That's what Aslan calls him, and it isn't complimentary. Digory wasn't deliberately setting out to cause major trouble for the whole world. His was basically the same character flaw as Pandora's and Eve's. He chooses to give in to inquisitiveness and temptation. I guess it's refreshing to see Lewis give this role to a male instead of yet another female. But oh man, Digory, look at what your nosiness unleashed!

4) Polly is a careful, sensible girl. She's more cautious than Digory, yet this comes across as grounded and level headed rather than anxious or cowardly. She's a refreshing straight-talker too. We need more people who aren't afraid to be blunt and say it like it is. Go Polly!

5) The two most villainous characters have the same basic attitude. They both long to make names for themselves, dominate their worlds and make huge splashes. They even drop similar lines to the effect that they consider themselves exempt from the moral codes that apply to lesser beings. That's scary stuff.

6) I love the sound of the Wood between the Worlds, with its slow and soothing atmosphere of gentle growth. I'd love to go and rest there for a long time. I think I might choose it as a destination over any of the lands it leads to.

7) Frank the cabbie is a legend. He's just a nice guy who's humbly doing his work to the best of his ability and earning an honest wage. I had a ride from a friendly chap like him in a black cab in 1990, and like to think that London cabbies come from a strong tradition of decent men from generations back. His role in this story is to show that normal dudes may possess regal, kingly potential that surprises even themselves. I love his horse Strawberry too.  

8) Everyone's responses to Aslan's wonderful song and the burgeoning world seem to match their characters. I've no doubt I would have been blown away in the same reverential manner as Digory, Polly and Frank, so hopefully that signifies my heart is sound too. However, I'm sure others would say exactly the same. Are we honestly to believe that misguided or dodgy readers would respond with repugnance to Lewis' written descriptions in the manner of Jadis and Andrew? Hardly likely! I doubt there are many truly villainous readers out there. And I guess you really had to be there on the spot.  

9) You can't pull the wool over Aslan's penetrating eyes with plausible sounding excuses you might even fool yourself with. Digory finds this out. In Aslan's presence, you have to face up to yourself as you truly are. The book doesn't attempt to describe the origin of the mighty Lion of Narnia, but indeed it can't be expected to.  

10) We do get to see the origins of Narnia's talking animals, the great wardrobe and also the lamp post beside which Lucy famously meets Mr Tumnus in the next book.   

What I wasn't a fan of this time round. 

I'll pass, this time. It's a neat, straightforward little fantasy, and nothing stood out to bother me.

Some Great Quotes

Digory: You're simply a wicked, cruel magician like the ones in the stories. Well, I've never read a story in which people of that sort weren't paid out in the end, and I bet you will be. (Haha, and was he ever!)

Polly: We might as well leave the guinea pig. It's perfectly happy here, and your uncle will only do something horrid to it if we take it home. (If my dear little guinea pig had still been with us, he would have been in my photo for sure.)

Polly: It's a good thing one of us has some sense. 

Digory: It's because you're a girl. Girls never want to know anything but gossip and rot about people getting engaged. (Oh, you're treading dangerous ground, Digs.)

Aslan: Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. 

Aslan: Length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery, and already she begins to know it. All get what they want. They do not always like it. 

Aslan: Before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants. (Lewis is putting these words in Aslan's mouth in retrospect, but it still packs a powerful punch.)

And the crux of the whole story for me... imagine a drum roll... 

'The memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just around some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.' 

Stick around, because next up will be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.